Space Station Live! NASA App Puts Orbiting Lab at Your Fingertips

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Ever wonder what the crew on board the International Space
Station is doing right now? Or what is the temperature of each of
the orbiting outpost's modules? Or how much power is being
generated at this very instant by the space station's solar array
wings?

The agency's Space Station Live! website and companion ISSLive!
mobile application offers the public a new inside look at what is
happening aboard the International Space Station (ISS) and
in
the Mission Control Center at NASA's Johnson Space Center in
Houston, Texas.

Space Station Live! enables its users to see what the six
expedition astronauts and cosmonauts on the complex are doing
minute by minute. Streaming data from the station through Houston
Mission Control lets the public view the latest details on
temperatures, communications and power generation.

In addition to accessing the same telemetry used by flight
controllers, Internet and smart phone users can use Space Station
Live! to tour
the space station and mission control operator consoles
through virtual 3-D view models.

Space Station Live! is at spacestationlive.nasa.gov on the web
and via the free ISSLive! app for smart phones and tablet
computers linked from NASA's site. The app also is available
through the Google Play and Apple iTunes app stores. [ Top
7 Space Apps ]

On the website and through the mobile apps, users can navigate
through a realistic 3-D recreation of the
space station's flight control room in Houston. They can
navigate through the rows of consoles, selecting workstations
such as the Flight Director's or Capcom's (spacecraft
communicator) to see the type of live data they work with.

For example, at the ETHOS console, which monitors the space
station's life support systems, Space Station Live! users can
view the current pressure, temperature and fan status in the U.S.
Destiny laboratory and Tranquility node. For the Quest airlock,
which astronauts exit through when performing spacewalks, live
telemetry offers updates on the pressure and valve positions for
the port's oxygen and nitrogen tanks.

Similarly, at the SPARTAN or Station Power, Articulation and
Thermal Control console, users can see the flow rate for the two
ammonia-filled loops that cool the station. A different screen at
the same virtual workstation displays the position in degrees and
how many volts and amps are being generated by the
power-providing solar arrays.

Separate from the Mission Control views, Space Station Live!
users can access the science and work timelines for each of the
six crew members living on board, as well as see where the space
station is in orbit, as relative to the real positions of the
Earth, moon and sun.

Live from Earth orbit

More than a year in development, Space Station Live! and ISSLive!
grew out an effort to provide the space station's flight
controllers working in
Mission Control access to the data they monitor while away
from their workstations.

NASA realized that sharing similar access to some of that same
live data could help raise public awareness of the
"groundbreaking research and technology development work ...
going on every day in the microgravity environment of space."

Further, says NASA, the data can be useful as a teaching tool in
the classroom. "Students and teachers can use the data to solve
classroom problems in science, technology, engineering and
mathematics," NASA wrote in its release announcing Space Station
Live! as now being available.

The Space Station Live! website first debuted last October as
part of a public beta, or testing, period. The ISSLive! apps for
Google Android and Apple iOS mobile devices were first released
in March.

"ISSLive! is a 'one-stop shop' for ISS data, letting users in on
the fascinating activities that happen daily on board the ISS,"
the Apple App Store description for ISSLive! reads.